Last updated on July 20th, 2021 at 12:28 pm

Concerning vs. Denmark for violation of article 7, 18 and 19 of CCPR.

The applicant is a citizen of the Islamic Republic of Iran. He is an active sympathizer of the Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran since 2008, and has participated in activities to promote the party, such as handing out flyers. He distributed fliers twice in the period August-November 2008.

The third time he was supposed to hand out flyers, he accidentally left one of the flyers in his biology book. The following day in school, while the applicant was out of the room, he heard people screaming and shouting in the room. The flyer caused caused panic, since that the mere possession of a flyer from an opposition group such as the Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran can lead to 10 years of imprisonment. The applicant went underground, and subsequently fled to Denmark, where he applied for asylum, but was rejected. The Board stated that “[It] cannot accept the applicants statement as facts… the applicants grounds for seeking asylum were fabricated for the occasion.” The applicant requested reopening of the case at the Board, supplying extra evidence such as a fax from the French branch of the Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran stating that he was a sympathizer of the party. However, the Board refused to reopen the case, stating that it considered no substantial new information had been provided.

In 2015, the Committee found that returning the applicant to Iran would not violate his rights, stating that there was no evidence that the decisions of the Refugee Appeals Board were manifestly unreasonable or arbitrary with respect to the author’s allegations.